Crazy study schedule?

[silent]

So i thought i better post my crazy study schedule for advice before I make too many rash decsions

I liked LongDong's approach of doing a lot of questions - unfortunately I've waited until now to really start doing questions. I have 6 weeks until the board test. And here is my plan:

First 2 weeks - I will do a reading through First Aid and do all of the questions in the Robbin's Review book, along with all of the questions in USMLERx. That's 30 pages of First Aid a day, 2 chapters of Robbins a day, along with ~75 questions of Rx a day.

I figure since Rx drills First aid concepts, I will know First Aid really well, and I will know robbins really well. And this will give me a chance to try a practice test - which I'll take at the center I plan on taking my test at. (150 questions)

Last 4 weeks: From there I'll be know where i stand score wise and weakness wise, and I'll start doing mad questions. I plan on doing 100 USMLEworld questions, 50 Qbank and 50 BSS questions a day. That should get me through all of UW and a good portion of Qbank and BSS by the time the test rolls around.

All in all that will be 1100 (robbins) 1100 (Rx), 6000 (UW, Qbank and BSS), for a total of 8200 questions.

Am I crazy?

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[Long Dong]

Yeah you might be crazy. But during the crunch you might wanna drop BSS and pick up kaplan Qbook instead since BSS might take to long to get threw and is not formated like the real deal. While Qbook is simliar format to the real deal and is also an excellent resource.

Also during the last 4 weeks of doing questions u might wanna still review FA for about an hour or 2 a day to try to keep FA fresh or just keep u from burning out on questions. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Medikit]

Yeah you might be crazy. But during the crunch you might wanna drop BSS and pick up kaplan Qbook instead since BSS might take to long to get threw and is not formated like the real deal. While Qbook is simliar format to the real deal and is also an excellent resource.

Also during the last 4 weeks of doing questions u might wanna still review FA for about an hour or 2 a day to try to keep FA fresh or just keep u from burning out on questions. Just my 2 cents.

It's kind of a cool schedule, but I'm not positive he'll meet his goal during the first two weeks. I agree with Dong, review in the morning when you wake up and then hit the questions.

 

[RockShox]

So i thought i better post my crazy study schedule for advice before I make too many rash decsions

I liked LongDong's approach of doing a lot of questions - unfortunately I've waited until now to really start doing questions. I have 6 weeks until the board test. And here is my plan:

First 2 weeks - I will do a reading through First Aid and do all of the questions in the Robbin's Review book, along with all of the questions in USMLERx. That's 30 pages of First Aid a day, 2 chapters of Robbins a day, along with ~75 questions of Rx a day.

I figure since Rx drills First aid concepts, I will know First Aid really well, and I will know robbins really well. And this will give me a chance to try a practice test - which I'll take at the center I plan on taking my test at. (150 questions)

Last 4 weeks: From there I'll be know where i stand score wise and weakness wise, and I'll start doing mad questions. I plan on doing 100 USMLEworld questions, 50 Qbank and 50 BSS questions a day. That should get me through all of UW and a good portion of Qbank and BSS by the time the test rolls around.

All in all that will be 1100 (robbins) 1100 (Rx), 6000 (UW, Qbank and BSS), for a total of 8200 questions.

Am I crazy?

I am not sure if it is "crazy" more than whether it is necessary to do that many. The questions are very important don't get me wrong but from all of those sources there will be a lot of overlap. I noticed that you did not mention the CBSSA tests by the NBME. THESE ARE MONEY!! There are no other questions that I have found that match the USMLE like these. And when taken with a time limit correlate well with actual score. I say take at least one before you start studying so you get an idea of where the test is coming from and the type of knowledge/thinking that it is testing. This keeps you from preparing for something and getting another.

As for the time...that is plenty esp. if you tried to do well in your MSII classes. You will be amazed how much of the stuff you learned then will "magically" pop in your mind on the test even if you never had a chance to review it. I spent about the same amount of time as you did in my full time prep. I did my review by organ system for path/phys/pharm. With each day dedicated to one and then other days dedicated to molecular/bio/anat/micro etc. I aslo scheduled full questions days and simulations. By week 4 I was so sick of it and ready to take the test I could not stand it. I also recommend NOT doing 14 hrs days it is just a waste and your mind is mush. The test required tertiary thinking and logical reasoning and you need to study this way. No more than 8 hrs a day with breaks (and a trip to the beach in between).

In the end I did extremely well. This is what worked for me and it seems like you have an idea that works for you. Good luck.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I would also recomend dropping BSS

 

[silent]

Thanks for the advice guys,

You're right about the first 2 weeks - it might be a little too aggressive. I might end up lengthening it to 3 weeks. And for the last 3 weeks I'll drop BSS and do UW and Qbank completely along with First Aid in the mornings.

I'll take a nbme test this weekend - although its kinda scary cause it feels like I know nothing.

Does the nbme give you a breakdown of what you got wrong?

 

[goodies]

So i thought i better post my crazy study schedule for advice before I make too many rash decsions

I liked LongDong's approach of doing a lot of questions - unfortunately I've waited until now to really start doing questions. I have 6 weeks until the board test. And here is my plan:

First 2 weeks - I will do a reading through First Aid and do all of the questions in the Robbin's Review book, along with all of the questions in USMLERx. That's 30 pages of First Aid a day, 2 chapters of Robbins a day, along with ~75 questions of Rx a day.

I figure since Rx drills First aid concepts, I will know First Aid really well, and I will know robbins really well. And this will give me a chance to try a practice test - which I'll take at the center I plan on taking my test at. (150 questions)

Last 4 weeks: From there I'll be know where i stand score wise and weakness wise, and I'll start doing mad questions. I plan on doing 100 USMLEworld questions, 50 Qbank and 50 BSS questions a day. That should get me through all of UW and a good portion of Qbank and BSS by the time the test rolls around.

All in all that will be 1100 (robbins) 1100 (Rx), 6000 (UW, Qbank and BSS), for a total of 8200 questions.

Am I crazy?

so you've reviewed all the material already and not going to re-read any review books??

 

[silent]

My review is going to be first aid, robbins and Rx. Actually i'll have my hands full just trying to get through that. And then i'll take a test and see what i need to focus on.

I did say it was a little crazy - that's why i posted it, to make sure its not too crazy...

 

[goodies]

just wondering because if you've already reviewed the material, going through all of those questions won't take as long.

if you havent reviewed, it might not be possible to get through so many questions in one day b/c reading the explanations takes an incredibly and surprisingly long time.

unless you are a fast reader.

 

[IndianBabu]

I like this schedule.

 

[silent]

Fast forward 2 weeks:

I've finished Robbins Review, BRS Path, Phys and Behav Sci.
But I've only gotten through 1/3 of USMLERx and 1/3 of First aid.

That was a lot of work for 2 weeks!

Any suggestions on where to go from here? Was thinking of going through the goljan audio and the high yield books subject wise as well as first aid. And on top of that finishing Rx along with q's from UW and Qbank and Qbook?

I'll take my practice test tommorrow.

 

[silent]

Ok, so I've decided to narrow down my question sources so I don't go crazy.

I'm going to drop QBank, and go with UW, Rx, Qbook and FA cards. Of those 4, which 3 do you think is the most useful? Cause I think I'm going to only be able to do 3 of them...

I was thinking UW, Qbook and FA cards?

 

[goodies]

why are u dropping qbank?

 

[silent]

I guess I was thinking that QBank is kinda of a lot, and Qbook is more bang for the buck for Kaplan questions.